Specific university courses will have additional requirements, for example my science course required an ATAR of 95, but also required a minimum score in a math

Specific university courses will have additional requirements, for example my science course required an ATAR of 95, but also required a minimum score in a maths unit, and required that you completed some number of science units (I don't exactly remember). So based on the requirements, you couldn't ace English and then enrol in a science degree, for example. In practice the minimum scores required in specific units are more easily achievable than the ATAR, so the ATAR ends up being the limiting factor most of the time. Here is an example: https://www.monash.edu/study/courses/find-a-course/2018/science-advanced-research-s3002?domestic=true#current-y12ib https://www.monash.edu/study/courses/find-a-course/2018/scie... You can see the scores required in individual units are all 30. 30 is the mean by definition, whereas an ATAR of 95 means you're in the 95th percentile, so obviously if you're in the 95th percentile it's pretty likely you were above the mean in the relevant units. > Do the universities these students apply to just see the ATAR number, or do they also see which courses went into its calculation? I've been told by an administrative person in my department that there is in fact no system in place to verify that the students have completed the prerequisite high school courses or their scores. This is surprising to me but there you go. My memory is unreliable so this might not be quite right but I think I heard from the head a department that they just get ATARs and whether the applicant is from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background. So if that's the case and is true for other universities, then the advertised subject requirements etc mostly have the effect of encouraging students to self-select. Presumably after the fact, the university could ask a failing student to provide their high school transcripts, but basically they're not enforcing it up-front automatically. But I also get the impression things are just not as competitive as in the US. Most people live in the major cities and just attend the best university that their score allows, out of the universities in their own city. They don't care enough about going to the best school to move cities for it. The differences between the top 8 universities are not great enough for it to be worth moving when there is likely one in your city already.